Toronto Blue Jays III: John Birch Society Edition

by Cliff Corcoran |
August 4, 2009 4:33 pm

The Yanks are in Toronto for two-game series with Roy Halladay starting tonight. That screams “split,” but you know the Yankees are glad they’re facing Halladay in Toronto tonight because it means they won’t be facing him as a Red Sock over the weekend. The Jays didn’t trade Halladay, but they did make one big deadline deal, while the Yankees made a smaller one, both with the Cincinnati Reds.

The Jays got younger and cheaper by trading Scott Rolen (34 and due $11 million in 2010) for fellow third-baseman Edwin Encarnacion (26 and due $4.75 million next year), relief pitcher Josh Roenicke, and minor league righty Zachary Stewart. The trade was made at Rolen’s request and blows a giant hole in the Blue Jays’ infield defense, as Rolen was a former Gold Glover who could still pick it at the hot corner, while Encarnacion is the worst defensive third baseman in baseball.

Like new Seattle Mariner Ian Snell, Encarnacion is a “change of scenery” pick-up, a player who had long been in the doghouse of his former team, the Reds, and whose performance the Blue Jays are hoping was suffering as a result. Prior to joining the Blue Jays on Friday, Encarnacion was having his worst major league season (.209/.333/.374 in just 43 games, the latter due to a fractured wrist suffered in late April).

Roenicke, a 27-year-old righty (as of today) and the nephew of former Yankee Gary, has seen only incidental major league action over the last two seasons, but has been dominant in Triple-A over the same period (2.55 ERA, 10.1 K/9, 3.75 K/BB, just two homers allowed in 67 innings). He throws in the upper 90s and could become Toronto’s closer in short order and for the foreseeable future. He’s in the Toronto pen now. Stewart was a third-round pick in last year’s draft out of Texas Tech. He was a college closer, but started seven games each in High-A and Double-A this year with excellent results only to return to relief in Triple-A. It’s unclear what the Jays plan to do with him just yet, but while he may not be a future star, he’s a good addition to their system.

The Yankees picked up the man who replaced Encarnacion at third the day that the latter hit the DL, utility man Jerry Hairston Jr. It’s difficult to remember now, but Hairston began his career as the Orioles’ second baseman, and there was a brief period during which it wasn’t clear whether the Orioles were going to commit to him or to Brian Roberts at the keystone. The O’s ultimately made the right choice, turning Hairston into a utility man in his age-28 season of 2004, then sending him to the Cubs that winter with current Cubs second-sacker Mike Fontenot for Sammy Sosa.

Thus began Hairston’s career as an itinerant utility man, spending a year and a half each with the Cubs, Rangers, and Reds while playing ever position but pitcher and catcher. That ability to bounce around the diamond saved Hairston’s major league career as he hit just .253/.324/.358 through his age-31 season in 2007. Then last year he had that fluke year that it seems every bench player is entitled to at some point in his career, hitting .326/.384/.487 for the Reds while playing, in order, short, left, center, right, second, and third. He made $500,000 that year, but the impressed Reds re-signed him for $2 million only to watch him return to his previous level of production (.254/.305/.397).

Hairston joins the Yankees as a strong defensive outfielder, solid defensive middle-infielder, poor defensive third baseman, inexperience first baseman (less than one full game), and a right-handed bat unlikely to out-hit Cody Ransom (career: .233/.321/.401). For that, the Yankees gave up 20-year-old A-ball catcher Chase Weems. Though only in his second pro season, Weems has yet to start hitting and was buried in a suddenly catching-rich system. No loss there, but Hairston doesn’t really represent a gain either.

Andy Pettitte starts for the Yankees tonight. In three starts since the All-Star break, Andy has posted a 2.70 ERA and struck out 23 against just 3 walks and one homer in 20 innings, but has gone 0-1 with the Yankees losing two of those starts. Facing Halladay tonight, he’s staring another hard-luck loss in the face. Here’s hoping we get the compelling pitchers duel that promises.

Home Run Hinske starts in right tonight against his former team and bats ninth. The rest of the Yankee lineup has the usual suspects in the usual places.

"Well, all of us except Brian Cashman, who has clearly seen enough. Never mind that the only real multi-season study to date by David Gassko of the great HardballTimes.com in 2006 debunked it. Verducci Effect pitchers under age 25 fared no worse in the following year than non-VE pitchers (those whose workload did not increase 30 or more innings) who also were under age 25."

"Who cares." I do. Great choice of a Dylan song. Read the article. Didn't understand much. If it mean that Joba should keep pitching, I am there. Seriously worried about the lack of arms for the stretch and in agreement about Hairston. Maybe he be Brian Doyle?

The bottom line: a dramatic increase in innings on a young pitcher elevates the risk of injury or a setback to their development.

But the evidence points to the opposite. Pitchers who see a large increase in workload are more likely to continue to be successful than those who don’t. It’s important to remember that correlation does not mean causation—just because throwing a lot more innings than a pitcher ever has before is correlated with future success does not mean that managers should be riding their young pitchers hard—but it does imply that Verducci’s argument is incorrect, and there is absolutely no reason that we should expect these YAE candidates to do worse because they’ve overworked.
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I like Will too, but we should always examine as many facts and opinions as possible.

[1] There was some mention in The Veducci Torre book about cadavers being tested to see how many pounds of pressure their arms could take before breaking (sorry, I don't remember the medical term), but the cadavers could handle just over 40 pounds of pressure. Or something like that. The point being, almost all pitchers are working at or near the 40 lbs of pressure threshold. There have been so many world records set over the last hunrded years, but pitchers are throwing about as hard as humanly possible. (100 mph for the blessed few)
Oy, I forgot what my point was. : D. Oh yeah, Joba. We will see.

[62][63] So that makes him a gigantic ass...not only is it annoying to have the rug pulled out from under you, but with Sterling you don't even get the benefit of knowing what happened (other than it was high, far and caught).

[64][70] For some reason Andy P shocked me when I first heard his Tejan accent..
Doc going to finish this game, can we scratch out another run? Calling the Small Ball Score Truck Delivery Service, please pick up...

That Matsui fly out was caught a step on the track. Man. I thought it was gone by the way the cf and rf were going back. He missed it by a fraction of an inch. IF that's this game's difference........grrrrrrrrrrr.

[77] Not to get into a religious discussion, but I don't think that it's particularly worthy of scorn that a "man of God" would fall short of the Christian ideal...indeed, Christianity pretty much accepts that Man is fallen, that temptation is difficult, that people sin, etc.

[79] wow, that's crazy about Leroy Vinnegar! i had NO idea he had a solo record in the 70's. he was a West Coast guy and i hadn't even heard of him til pretty recently. amazingly enough, i got 2 albums on the same day, with him on both!!! weird.

Kenny Drew & Kenny Dorham. both are on Blue Note, but not originally. i had never heard of these albums on BN til a few months ago and scored them both! Drew's is from 1955, Dorham's from 1962. recorded in San Fran & LA.

[88] Oh, it was nothing against Andy and his religious beliefs, that is not suitable to make fun of. It was more abotu Michael Kay and his constant "man of God" references..as if this made it more forgivable than heathens like Clemens and A-Rod! :)

hank aaron just did an interview and stated the rest of the 100 names should be released and Pete Rose should be reinstated and voted into the Hall. i know this isn't really new news, but there's a new article up on it...

[187] I don't have a problem with Girardi using his closer in the eighth; in fact, I generally approve of the strategy. My beef is that they decided to take Hughes out of the BP (a mistake in my mind) and convert him into the super-eighth-inning guy, and he has responded. So let the man pitch and do his job. Don't burn multiple trustworthy pitchers when you don't have to, especially with Coke fried from the other day and Aceves shaky of late. Finally, don't pull Hughes when (it seems) Mo is not ready to come in yet. I think at this point Hughesy has earned the right to work himself out of a jam, especially when he just got two Ks.

[193] Don't you know they're converting him into the "super 2 out guy?" I feel fortunate lately when i actually get to see Phil get 3 outs. Tonight doesn't count. He should have gotten 4. I, too, believe he should be starting soon. We can save that for tomorrow. : )

[193] I don't have a problem with it either, except for the fact that Wells is one of the rare batters with a good track record against him. Also, Hughes is tailor made for Wells. Making the matter worse is Hughes now isn't even the 8th inning guy, which not only limits his workload, but add miles on Mariano's arm.

[230] I wouldn't throw things. Igawa was awful, but he has (apparently) pitched pretty well at AAA. If Mitre is gonna pitch like Mitre, throw Igawa against the wall and see if he sticks. Plus, he might (might) have some utility of LOOGY.